


when I breathe out, you breathe in

by evenmyneck (stopmopingstarthoping)



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Canon Universe, Drug Use, F/M, Fluff, Kinda, Shotgunning, Smoking, medieval weed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-02
Updated: 2019-12-02
Packaged: 2021-02-24 16:41:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21641122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stopmopingstarthoping/pseuds/evenmyneck
Summary: Marianne can't quite figure out how to use the herbs that the professor gave to her and Ignatz, so Ignatz helps her.
Relationships: Marianne von Edmund & Ignatz Victor
Comments: 7
Kudos: 16





	when I breathe out, you breathe in

“They’re from the professor, so…I assume it’s all right.” 

Ignatz took another pull from the tiny clay pipe in his hand and felt a calm spread through his limbs. He looked up thoughtfully at the ceiling, following the glint of candlelight as it fell across some of the gold-leafed surfaces in the evening dim. It felt strange to be smoking in a church. 

“I suppose they do burn incense in here.”

Marianne’s gaze flicked quickly over to him then away, and Ignatz realized he’d said that last part out loud. A sheepish blush scorched his cheeks, but he also felt an uncontrollable smile creep over his lips. Maybe the Archbishop knew what she was on about with these herbs.

Marianne coughed and made a worried noise, and Ignatz looked over at her. She was sipping shallow little breaths from the pipe, just taking mouthfuls of the smoke and letting them back out.

“I think for the, ah, medicinal qualities to work, you have to pull it into your lungs a bit. Like this.” Ignatz tried to show her, taking a deep pull from the pipe again and expanding his chest for emphasis. He held it for a moment, then streamed it out past his lips. 

Marianne tried, but coughed again, and frowned. “I’m just no good at this. I should probably go.”

A bold, terrifying idea seized Ignatz and his normal reticence seemed diffused, like the blurry light of the candle reflections he'd been staring at earlier. 

"May I try something? I think it could help."

She looked at him, head tilted, and gave a small nod before looking down again. 

Ignatz took another pull of odd-tasting, warm air from the pipe, and leaned close to Marianne. 

Her eyebrows shot up and she looked at him, panicked. 

"I thought maybe…" Ignatz couldn't talk and hold the smoke at the same time, so he started blowing it out slowly. He tried to gesture to Marianne to move toward him, that he wasn't just blowing smoke in her face. But her confused scowl told Ignatz that he realized he really should have explained his idea first. 

She moved slightly toward him, understanding finally, but flinched away at the last second and darted up to leave. 

Ignatz turned backward to take her hand and tell her it was alright, she should stay, she was safe, but he lost his balance and rolled onto his back. The ridiculousness of it made him giggle, and it echoed in the empty cathedral. Marianne didn't laugh in return, but she did stop her brisk steps, and from his supine position on the floor, Ignatz watched her shoes step slowly back toward him. 

He blinked up at Marianne slowly.

“Want to try again?” He tried to make his smile unthreatening and gentle; it wasn’t difficult faced with her wide, expectant umber eyes. Maybe it would be easier for her if she could control things, Ignatz thought. 

Marianne nodded, and—was she blushing? Ignatz felt that uncontrollable smile pull at the corners of his mouth again. He pulled smoke in and held it, expectant. 

Marianne knelt down. 

Ignatz waited. 

Her features softened, not quite into a smile but almost, and Ignatz felt a strong impulse to reach up and tuck one of the dangling sky-blue tendrils above him behind the delicate shell of her ear. 

He didn’t, though; even the relaxation from the herbs hadn’t loosened him up enough for that. Ignatz still worried about making the deep discomfort that he could almost see twist in Marianne’s gut from time to time rear its head.

Right when his lungs felt fit to burst, she leaned over him, and he exhaled. 

He watched her breathe in the narrow column of smoke that he directed upward, until she got closer to his face, and Ignatz's eyes closed, almost by instinct. 

Her lips brushed against his, light as a bird’s wing. 

Ignatz expected Marianne to leave after that, and was surprised when she sat down next to him. She folded her legs under her and sighed.

Ignatz sat up, and was quiet. 

After what could have been a long time or just a few minutes, he felt her shoulder lean into his, just slightly. The smallest contented sound glanced off the marble floor and faded as quickly as it came. 

Ignatz leaned back, and let the earthy scent of the herbs and the warmth of companionship settle around them like a blanket.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to the folks who mentioned that those "herbs" Rhea has Byleth give the students seem... familiar. 
> 
> I'm a sucker for shotgunning, even awkward, shy shotgunning. 
> 
> Thanks for reading! Kudos and comments are love.


End file.
